Your child has the opportunity to participate in a philanthropy project to increase awareness of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Goals of the project:

1. Increase awareness of Imagination Library (free books for children birth to 5).
2. Collect money to provide financial support to the Henderson County program.  The children of Henderson County can help raise money to help other kids enjoy reading their own books before they even get to school.
3. We encourage our students to read (or be read to) 15-20 minutes a day.  This philanthropy project will support a daily reading effort.

You can help support Quarter for Quarter!  If each child participates with a minimum $3.00 pledge, the approximately $9,900.00 will be collected to put books into the hands of children.  If your child cannot find a sponsor, we will attempt to obtain a pledge from the community for your child’s reading efforts.

 For more information please contact Betsy Wells-Jones: betsy@northwestky.com

Share/Bookmark

Watch Video: http://www.ket.org/tvschedules/episode.php?nola=KEDMA+000302

View interviews of yesterday’s Home Visit Blitz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtzjbekxGno&feature=channel_video_title

On Monday, they were attorneys, politicians, non-profit organizers, store owners, professors and business executives.

On Tuesday, they were just people who hefted packs of ice, barbecued chickens, delivered meals, welcomed visitors and more.

“There were so many community folks there to help put lunches together and have things ready, it was great,” said Marganna Stanley, assistant superintendent for administration. “It was fantastic.”

She was talking about the first-annual Henderson County Schools Home Visitation Blitz.

The blitz sent about 500 teachers and other school staff out to meet roughly 3,000 students in kindergarten through fifth grades at the students’ homes.

The staff members were paid for their time and received $30 gas cards.

These types of home visits have been taking place at South Heights Elementary School for the past 14 years, and the preschool program is required to conduct two home visits per year.

But the blitz on Tuesday was the first-ever districtwide effort to visit the homes of elementary school students.

Stanley said the tipping point for the districtwide elementary school blitz was the passion of a parent engagement group, which made a presentation to the district’s administrative staff a year or so ago.

“They also made presentations to the (school) board in the early spring, and the board embraced that, and then that’s when the planning started,” she said.

By many accounts, the blitz went very smoothly.

Dedra Mayes said on The Gleaner’s Facebook page that her family has had home visits every year since her oldest child started school.

“It has a great snowball effect,” she said. “My daughter was nervous to meet her teacher, but the first day of school went so smoothly. She walked in and recognized the teacher right away.

“Personally it’s not all about the parents, it’s for the kids. They get to meet the teacher on home turf instead of always in the classroom.”

But some parents posted on The Gleaner’s Facebook page that the meetings were a bit too short, and that more parents could have been reached if the meetings took place after 5:30 p.m.

Stanley said administrators and principals will talk about ways to improve the event at later meetings.

Meanwhile, the parent engagement group is an off-shoot of the Rally 4 Education, which was spearheaded by Northwest Kentucky Forward in 2009.

The goal of the rally was to engage residents and to help them understand the direct connections between strong schools and regional economic development.

“Not only is it about meeting the kids, but it’s also about improving relationships between the public and private sector,” said Brad Schneider, the president of the Henderson-Henderson County Chamber of Commerce.

“The private sector has a vested interest in what the schools do.”

Leslie Stuen, the gifted education coordinator for the local school district, was one of many staff members who visited homes with Jefferson Elementary School on Tuesday.

She was part of a team that met parents and students on the front stoop. That’s where staff members introduced themselves, explaining — in most cases — who would be the child’s teacher.

The parents were also given documents to fill out and bring back to the school at open houses before the start of classes on Aug. 4. They were also given class supply lists.

“There has been lots of hugging,” said Kasey Farmer, principal at Jefferson. “We didn’t tell them who their teacher was (beforehand) … so they would be totally surprised when their teacher got there.”

She added that, at her school, every child met the teacher he or she will work with when classes start.

“The visits I had were very positive,” said Pam Tapp, a first-grade teacher at Bend Gate Elementary.

“I tried to make a positive first impression so their transition to the classroom would be easier. Everybody was really nice.”

She said that publicity for the blitz was so extensive that she and others had the feeling that students and parents knew they were coming.

Conni Stoner, the director of childcare at Bend Gate, said her team of two visited 14 homes in the morning, but only five families were home at the time.

“I think they were excited to see us … because the kids ran to the door,” she said. “It’s been fun.”

Stoner and others spoke at the Denton Shelter at Atkinson Park. That was one of several lunch spots for the teachers and other staff members who made home visits.

The blitz received support from more than a dozen local organizations that donated time, energy and resources to make the event possible.

And that included having Henderson County magistrates at the Denton Shelter at 4 a.m. to start grilling barbecued chicken.

Later, at 7 a.m., attorney Dawn Kelsey and others met a crew from Kentucky Education Television (KET), which filmed part of the blitz for its “Education Matters” program to air on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.

The monthly series focuses on educational issues around the state, and the upcoming program will likely include interviews with Rob Carroll, the principal of South Heights Elementary, who has a lot of experience doing home visits with his students.

“I can’t imagine the possibilities if we did things like this on all the challenges we face,” he said. “There’s a pretty positive vibe.”

M’Lea Peak, executive director of the United Way of Henderson County, said she really didn’t know if there was many group of volunteers that were not represented on Tuesday.

That’s because there were volunteers from health services, city and county government, non-profits, business and other private citizens.

“Everybody just kind of checked their egos at the door and came together as a community,” she said.

“Dawn Kelsey has been very instrumental (as the leader of the parent engagement group), and we are just glad to be a part of it,” Peak said.

She added that her perception is that non-educators have been wanting to get involved in schools for some time, but that they really didn’t know what to do or how to go about it.

“It just shows that our community wants to be a part of our children’s success,” she said. “You can imagine what it feels like (for a child) to think, ‘My teacher is coming to see me.’”

Meanwhile, two officials from the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence also observed the event.

Bev Raimondo is the director of the Center for Parent Leadership/Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, and Sheila Cruse Johnston is the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership Community Support Coordinator.

The Prichard Committee was founded in 1980 as an independent organization dedicated to the progress of education.

Other members of the parent engagement committee are Rob Carroll, Cindy Williams, Herb McKee, TJ Fridy, Bennie Mouser, Susie Bailey, Jennifer Keach and M’Lea Peak.

© 2011 Evansville Courier & Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Union County Board of Education Regular Meeting was held on Monday, May 16^th at Uniontown Elementary School in Uniontown, Kentucky.  Kevin Sheilley and Betsy Wells-Jones from Northwest Kentucky Forward attended the meeting to discuss the Workforce Survey.  The meeting began with  FBLA Competition Winners, Governor’s Scholars, District and Regional Elementary Governor’s Cup Winners, and Caleb Ervin received the Dave Shultz High School Excellence National Award (this award is only given to a select few in the country). To top the recognitions off a Chinese Performance lead by the Hu Bing, and Gu Yufang with the Union County Elementary Students was presented to the audience.

Visitors to the open house will learn about the following programs in which the students will get a hands-on experience for their specific field of interest: accounting, agriculture,automotive technology, business management, construction technology, family and consumer sciences, finance and banking, health science, information technology, machine tool technology, pre-engineering, visual communications and welding technology.

Learn more information by visiting www.hchscte.com.

Read more: http://northwestky.com/news/be-a-show-off-at-ohio-valleys-got-talent.html

At the center of this transformation – advocating, negotiating, and holding together disparate interest groups—have been the citizens who make up the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. We are proud to say that two people from the Northwest KY region are represented on the Prichard Committee, Mr. Scott Davis and Mr. Jon L. Sights. Davis is a member of the Prichard Committee’s Business Leadership Council for Pre-Kindergarten. Sights is a Henderson County school board member.

Learn more about the program here: http://prichblog.blogspot.com/

To read more: http://www.northwestky.com/news/local-students-energized.html

The long term goal of the Regional Education and Workforce Development Initiative is to promote cultural change in Northwest Kentucky for its citizens to expect nothing less than educational excellence throughout our region. Community Partnerships will bridge the gap between the once separate school and community ensuring that the regional workforce is prepared for the skills and training necessary to be successful requires planning.

GRADD is responsible for administering Title I of the Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and coordinates the operations and services of the Green River One Stop Career Center System by providing job search and training assistance to adults, dislocated workers and youth.

NWKF and GRADD assist employers with recruitment, assist the workforce with attaining the necessary skills to be competitive, and provide workforce preparedness and training for schools, colleges, and individuals. GRADD’s other services available through the Workforce Investment Act include: Adult Education and Literacy Services, Employment Services, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Job Corps, Native American Programs, and Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Programs.